Shadow Realm
by Silverambush
Summary: The world is at peace and Yusei and the rest of the team can relax and do what they are supposed to do, for kids their age. Go to school. How will the Crew react to going to the school and dealing with it like normal teens. They'll meet interesting people and make new enemies as old ones try to rise from the grave. And why does Yusei feel he is forgetting something or is it someone
1. Prologue: The Shadow Realm

The Shadow Realm

A/N: Disclaimer: By the way my friends I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

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**Prologue: The Shadow Realm**

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Kage Ryoiki gazed blankly around the eternal darkness with uncaring dull red eyes. The resounding screams of those falling to corruption and those who wailed to leave the dark nothingness they lived in. Looking down blankly at his hands, the red highlights in his hair sliding down over his shoulders to frame his face, his hands were red: covered in the sickly sweet smell of fresh blood.

Turning his head he looked at the pathetic form of the fallen human who had been banished to this dark place by a Pharaoh of a place called Egypt. Shaking off the foreign names of a plane he would never visit. The human could not stand the dark place he inhabited; the human girl said she was innocent and that this Pharaoh had made a mistake. So like all humans that ended up here he as the 'Guardian' of this plane these 'humans' called "The Shadow Realm" he had kept the girl with him and had waited. He had kept her fed and kept her sheltered but like all humans by the end of the month her true personality showed its head. Her seemingly sweet persona was leach from her in her prolonged stay in this dark realm twisting it into something horrible and disgusting.

As a 'Guardian' he had to keep these 'banished' or 'unrightfully' sent 'humans' until either someone came to save them or they went insane. Kage had found that humans seemed to have a time limit in this realm before the dark energy that he and the other beings that lived here fed on. Though he didn't have to feed off that and chose to hunt down other higher ranking beings and consume them before they tried to escape and destroy things. Blinking to stop the wandering thoughts he picked up the broken body and stood up seemingly to float on the nothingness of the blank darkness.

Closing his eyes he pictured slowly falling down he felt the light pull of what the humans called 'gravity' that they all suffered from when they came here, falling every time he tried to walk with them because their minds would not allow them to believe they could float on 'nothing'. It wasn't really 'nothing' this entire realm was an almost solid mass of dark energy. As long as you pictured standing you could stand, if you pictured stairs you could walk up what seemed like 'nothing' to go higher or lower in any case, and you could also just picture floating up and down to do the same thing.

This realm had no 'bottom' or 'top' which made it seem endless but that was just an illusion the realm was always shifting and moving but if you pictured a place you wanted to go the realm would move you there. The humans seemed to think that the realm was just that a realm, but it was an actual living thing always moving always thinking always devouring. The humans from this 'other realm' seemed to blame this realm for its 'evilness' and 'darkness', but in reality this realm was born from the darkness and greed of 'human' hearts it's what powered this realm and fed its defiled occupants.

Kage opened his eyes once more when he had the feeling of stopping. Looking below him he saw what looked like a massive pit of rolling shadows with disgusting faces looking hungry and despicable. Their eyes stared up at him greedily tongues out as acidic drool dripped from their jaws, they knew why he was here he always brought them the flesh of the humans he killed when they went insane.

Many would call this inhumane but to him it was only the circle of life here in this realm. These seemingly rolling blobs of shadow and gluttony were the very basic form of life here, in human terms they would be the same as insects and scavengers annoying but necessary to the survival of the beings that lived here. They fed off the flesh of rotting beings from this realm and the dark energy that soaked the air of the realm.

Feeling a mass of dark energy serge from the dead human's carcass he acknowledged that the human was starting to make the change. What most humans did not know when they banished someone to live in this realm that was not born here they were literally condemning them to become one of the things that lived in this realm. When a human died here when their hearts are full of anger, hate, and despair these emotions are caught by the realm and kept the soul of that person along with them. Warping the soul until it was one with its last emotions and twisted it into one of the shadow blobs.

Many would call this plane evil for doing something like that to another being, but isn't that just as bad as this supposed Pharaoh and his group that seemed to have the power to summon beings from this realm to theirs and send people to this one. Though they know they are condemning them to torture they don't seem to understand the real consequences they are causing by sending 'humans' to this realm. 'Humans' were never meant to live for long amounts of time here.

The realm had even made a counter balance for the fact that there were too many dark energies being sent into this realm. So it had made him 'The Guardian' and the others that were like him, but not… Seeing the dark mass of energy rise out of the corpse a disgustingly grinning face with hungry eyes looked up at him before it flowed around the corpse and came back together and dropped into the pit with the rest of the blobs and stared up at him with hunger not seeming to even remember that the corpse it wanted to eat so badly used to be its own living skin.

Staring down at them bored he dropped the corpse carelessly, he watched in detachment as the blobs surrounded it and started to tear chunks from it eating it savagely. Turning he walked what seemed like forward in the directionless realm starting his rounds to see if there were any other 'humans' needed to be kept watch over. Ready to sit and wait even if all he did was wait for **eternity**…

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A.N: There we go prologue done. From my own experience when it comes to 5Ds stories is that there are only a few people who write them and keep up with their writings due to the lack of attention on the readers part. So I decided to throw in my own story for enjoyment and fully tend to finish this story, but any suggestions you the reader could think up would be seriously helpful.

This is a school after the series story so if you all could come up with any fun ideas for villains or things they could do at school that would be helpful. I'll take them into consideration and maybe they might end up in the story.

That's it so, good bye and have a nice day.

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	2. Chapter 1: An Innocent Being

**The Shadow Realm**

A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

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**Chapter One:**

**An Innocent Being**

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Shrewd intelligent red eyes stared around the darkness in curiosity. It had been a long time since humans were 'sent' to this realm. It had only been recently in the past 300 years that humans started to pop up in this realm again, the increase of humans had stopped when this 'Egyptian Pharaoh's soul' slipped into a coma like state. Kage could feel that his soul was still connected to this realm. This connection somehow allowed him and those like him the ability to 'send' and 'bring' things from this realm to theirs or vice versa.

When he seemed to 'disappear' from the conscious beings, Kage had sat around useless in a sense since no more beings were being sent to this realm anymore. At first he had cleaned out the excess amount of humans who had been 'banished' here, and kept watch over the ones he had not been able to find quickly enough and had morphed into a form of the second evolution of a shadow being; the humans called them "Ka monsters." He just called them "Shadow Beings" and left it as that.

Depending on their level of emotion and power he would debate on eating them. Light monsters fed off the of the feeling of birth and bond, they were sweet, so he didn't eat them much because 'The Realm' didn't want him to and he didn't really like them. Fire monsters fed off the emotions of passion and anger, they were spicy, and so he ate those more often. One because they were a good battle and because they tasted the best to him, 'The Realm' didn't mind him eating those ones to much because their fire caused large amounts of destruction, but it did say he couldn't eat them to extinction. Water monsters fed off the emotions of calmness and sadness. They weren't the best to eat because they tended to be soggy. Earth monsters fed off of happiness and caring emotions. He only ate those if he was sick, because they were the most soothing. Air monsters fed of the feeling of strength and power. He stayed as far away from those monsters as possible, because they were rare and hard to find, also a side effect of when he ate them; he got drunkish. Dark monsters fed off what 'The Realm' fed off of, death and hate. He ate these the most because they were the most abundant and because 'The Realm' told him to. They tended to taste like over ripened fruit.

Some of the 'human' turned shadow beings even reached the third level which was the last level under his. This was the level where they either; regained their original human form, and were completely made of the emotion they had grown on or turned into a humanoid shadow being. These were the most dangerous and tended to leave this realm and go back to their original cracking the barrier that 'The Pharaoh' had made around this realm, when his soul became unconscious. Though there were some special cases where a human had skipped the first two levels of being a soul shadow and went straight to level three. He had only seen it once and it was partially his fault. It was when a sorcerer and his apprentice had done a 'forbidden' spell in 'Ancient Egypt' it had sent their 'pure souls' to this realm and straight to him. Not knowing what to do with the truly pure souls he had picked the "Ka monster" their souls were bound to and merged them together so that their souls could survive this realm. Then feeling out for the unconscious 'Pharaoh's soul' he had tied the three together after the insistent begging of the two sorcerers so that when the time came they could always serve their Pharaoh.

Later when one of the first level three 'human' turned "shadow being" an albino named Akefia, he had mentioned he was a 'thief' when he was amongst the 'living', left when the 'Pharaoh's soul' became conscious once more breaking the barrier around this realm and allowing 'the thief' to escape. Also the sorcerers disappeared around the time that he did.

Many humans started to show up once more, with in this realm, giving him something to do again. Though this time he got to see 'The Pharaoh' and observed as he and soul shadow possessed 'humans' fought with in this realm. What was the most interesting was that when the Pharaoh won he would say a phrase, which would activate magic, casting out the soul shadows and took the now purified 'humans' back to their realm.

Studying the cast out soul shadows he saw that they did not originate with in this realm, and that they came from the other realm. It seemed that some humans exposed to the Egyptian magic, built enough hate and anger that had developed into soul shadows. It had been interesting to him since he had only heard of soul shadows being in this realm. Letting his curiosity go he had continued on with his job and kept the humans with him until 'The Pharaoh' or one of his companions came to save the human or they 'turned'. Though once the humans returned they would remember nothing of him.

The increase of humans continued on for maybe two years before it stopped once more and this realm was once again sealed by 'The Pharaoh' this time he felt that 'The Pharaoh's' soul passed on to were ever they go. The two sorcerers had returned to this dimension when 'The Pharaoh' had passed on. The two had looked sad that they couldn't join him wherever he went but happy that they had helped him. Then they had told him stories of what happened in the other realm while they were away. It was a fascinating tale that kept his attention and stirred his imagination.

He was thinking hard and he knew that, from the tone of their voices, they wanted to go to where their 'Pharaoh' was 'resting'. Closing his eyes Kage felt for the thin shadowy strand that had connected the 'Pharaoh' to this realm clutching the 'strand' with his mind he then grabbed theirs. Picturing the 'Pharaoh's' as a tube he forced the two sorcerer's 'strands' into it sucking them out of this realm and into the one with the 'Pharaoh.'

Opening his eyes he found himself alone once more pushing away the slit feeling of loneliness he had once again sat down and decided to wait like he always had. It seemed he wouldn't have to wait long for only a short time later 'humans' started to show up again. Though this time there was no one like the 'Pharaoh' that came to save them until a while later when he level three shadow being named "Yubel" possessed a human named "Jesse Anderson" and brought him to this realm. He found out later, when that 'human' had been kicked out, that 'her' original target had been a 'human' named "Jaden Yuki". Yubel seemed to have kidnapped the 'humans' due to loneliness. Seeing that 'she' was not causing the 'human' any damage he had left them alone to work things out by themselves, though he had kept watch just to make sure. Soon after that some other 'humans' showed up and took Jaden back to their realm, he took Yubel with him.

Another two hundred years passed while he waited when something started up again, though this time it was different. The people didn't come to this realm to 'duel' but had instead stayed in their realm. The shadow beings didn't originate from this realm either, they came from the very bowels of the 'earth' in the 'human's' realm. Though, they fed on 'The Realm' as if it were 'their' energy source. It did not overly worry Kage that much due to the fact that it kept the number of 'soul shadows' down making his job easier, and the 'humans' made enough energy from their 'wars' to power 'The Realm' and these gigantic shadow beings multiple times over for millennia to come.

This came to his current, curious dilemma. Below him a 'duel' was happening, not just any 'duel' it seemed. A 'shadow duel' in which when you lose 'life points' in the 'game' you lose them both figuratively and literally. 'The Realm' told him that these 'duels' helped to create the light monsters of this realm when the 'good guy' lost. Currently below where he was floating Kage saw that a young blue spikey haired, with gold highlights, 'duelist' was losing, because the 'Dark Signer' was cheating. The 'Dark Signer' had set up an impossible match and held a red haired woman hostage , taking her deck, forcing 'the good guy' to accept the match, then started to cheat throughout the it.

Kage tilted his hair, the impossibly long strands sliding down over his shoulder. He didn't see the need to cheat and lie, 'humans' seemed to do it often which caused the 'wars' that super powered 'The Realm'. It confused him, though he had been told by 'humans' he had guarded that he acted more like a beast then a person. Shaking off the straying thoughts he watched the duel as the 'Duelist', who seemed to be a good 'Signer', was forced down to his knees his blue eyes just barely open as he gasped in pain. Deciding he had seen enough of the foul play Kage descended down to the level of the 'duelists' unseen.

Coming up behind the 'Signer' he summoned the shadow beings that were bound to him in the 'card' form the 'duelist's' used placing them on top of the 'Signer's' deck. Stepping back Kage watched as the 'Signer' made a comeback ,using his cards which prospered in this realm, making the 'Dark Signer' scream in anger before playing a card that Kage knew was banned due to talking to other 'humans'. He knew that the 'Signer' wanted to scream 'foul' but couldn't because this was a life and death match, not a friendly spar. After the banned card, "The Crimson Devil", was summoned Kage could feel a thick cloak of darkness surrounding the being. The two 'Signers' stared in fear at the: colossal shadow being.

The red haired one yelled, "Wasn't "The Crimson Devil" sealed by Jack!?"

The 'Dark Signer' started to laugh crazily before spouting off how he resurrected "The Crimson Devil" and how it would destroy the blue haired one and how he found out that "The Crimson Devil" could only be summoned and controlled in the "Shadow Realm" and that once he won it would absorb the two 'Signers' and leave this realm to go back to their realm.

Pointing at the blue haired one the shadow being attacked the 'Signer' destroying one of the three monsters he had, making his 'life points' almost go down to zero. Kage could feel that from the 'life force' of this shadow being that if it were to leave this realm it would tear it apart and release all those who lived here and let them loose on the unsuspecting other realm.

Kage knew he needed to stop this before it happened stepping up; catching the man in what seemed like invisible arms. Placing his hand above 'The Signer's' head, he lightly touched the 'Signer's' mind, searching for the increasingly weak strand of life. Once he found it he touched it lightly with his own.

"Human, can you hear me?"

The 'human's' head swayed groggily before nodding in affirmative. "Human…" "Yusei…Yusei Fudo…What's your name?" Blinking down at the human Kage tilted his head, no human had ever asked for his name, after introducing themselves, except for the 'sorcerers'. It had confused him when they had asked him, until they explained the concept of a 'name'. When he had said he had no 'name' they had looked very sad. The apprentice had nicknamed him 'Elfie' due to his pointed ears. It was interesting that this human asked him when most did not.

Whispering softly he said, "Kage…Ryoiki is what I have always been called. Now Yusei Fudo I must say this quickly or you are going to lose the duel for not continuing your turn and if you lose it could mean the end of the world."

"Doesn't it always?" Yusei looked up at him, a smile lighting up his face.

Raising his eyebrows Kage shrugged, "I don't know what you've lived through, but it sounds like an interesting tale maybe you could tell it to me someday. But for now do you understand the consequences?" Yusei nodded his head in affirmative, "Yusei Fudo, may I take over your body and continue the duel in your stead, due to the 'Dark Signer's' cheating, and for the wish for the continuation of these two realms."

Blue eyes opened a hard glint in them before he nodded and said, "If you can beat him Ryoiki-san you may take over my body."

"I thank you Yusei Fudo."

Walking forward Kage felt a tingling feeling as he was absorbed from his body into Yusei's. Rolling his shoulders and neck he pulled a card from the slot on the 'duel disk' holding the deck and looked down at it. It was a spell card he had added into Yusei's deck, called "Shadow's Summoner", its effect is that even if a monster on the field can nullify or destroy a 'spell' or 'trap' card, this card is unaffected. You can summon one 'monster' from your grave and your opponents, even if it is a synchro summon, at the cost of two monsters.

"I play the Spell Card, Shadow's Summoner."

The 'Dark Signer' started to laugh manically before shouting at 'Yusei', "You seem to forget that as long as "The Crimson Devil" is on the field, he can destroy any spell or trap on the field!"

Tilting his head to the side Kage/Yusei gave a blank smile giving the other 'Duelists' the creeps. "Yes but you have never seen this card before have you Dark Signer-san? This card will continue its effect even if another monster's effect is designed to cancel it out. Now I shall show you the rest of this Spell Card's effect."

Raising up his hand Kage/Yusei nodded at the two 'shadow beings' in a sign of acknowledgement. The two 'monsters' turned around and nodded back before disappearing in a cloud of pixels. "Now using "Shadow's Summoner"'s second effect, I can summon two monsters from the graveyard, one from mine and one from yours, no matter if it is a fusion, ritual, or synchron."

The 'Dark Signer' started to sweat before stuttering out an arrogant reply. "S-so what? No matter what monster in either your's or her's deck with be enough to defeat "The Crimson Devil".

"That's where you're wrong. Since that is not your deck you do not know how to use it to its fullest extent. The beings that lived trapped within these 'cards' whisper to me and they all whisper their wish of your death… So I shall deliver it to them."

Aki stared at the man that had captivated her since 'The Fortune Cup' standing there looking so coldly while he talked about killing the man in front of her. 'It's not like him. Why is he acting like this? That's not Yusei.' Staring fearfully at the man across the field who; seemed to be scaring her more than the man who kidnapped her and the fearsome beast who lay on the field.

"You're not Yusei are you?"

The 'Dark Signer' spun around and looked at her in surprise, before spinning back around to look at the blue haired man who stood loosely, a fake smile on his face. "No child I am not Yusei. I am a being who has lived in this realm since its dawn. I have been a neutral party up to this point but I do not wish for this light soul to die because that one decided to cheat and lie. Also as the guardian I cannot very well let this man destroy…my realm."

Looking back up the shadows clearing away from his eyes one blue eyed stared back at the two, this did not cause fear but it was the blood red eye that looked at them that scared the two. The color white, crept up his bangs only stopping once it set in the crown of his head, leaving the hair that brushed his shoulders and the pointed ends of his spikes blue; that faded to white as it drew closer to his head. The gold streaks running through his hair turned red than faded back into gold when it ran through the blue. Altogether, this person who possessed Yusei was strikingly beautiful even if, it was only 'his' coloring on Yusei.

The 'Dark Signer' started to wave his arms around widely, "You can't do that it's cheating!"

A mirthless laugh rumbled out of the tan man's throat before the bi-colored eyes pierced the insane man's form. "You wish to talk to me about cheating: you worthless excuse for a 'human'? Enough of this let us end this nonsense, so that I might get you better acquainted with the more…hungry beings of this realm. Using the effect of this card, I summon "Black Rose Dragon" from 'your' deck."

The rose like lizard rose out of the shadows snapping its jaws at the 'Dark Signer'. "Using her effect, since this spell card works like a synchro summon, I destroy all monsters on the field."

The other man made a feeble attempt at waving his arms and stuttering out, "But, but, "The Crimson Devil" nullifies everything", the man trailed off as his monster was destroy. "But that's not possible."

Tilting his head his hair covered over his one blue eye before Kage/Yusei smirked. "Everything is possible. With the correct strategy even 'gods' will fall. Now I will also summon "Star Dust Dragon" from 'my' grave. With these two powerful "Shadow Beings" they will be the last thing you see. Now "Star Dust Dragon" "Black Rose Dragon" attack his life points directly and send his worthless soul to wear it belongs with the other rotten soul shadows."

The two dragons attacked the defenseless 'Dark Signer' draining his life points until they hit zero. The other man dropped to the floor mumbling about how it wasn't possible, before dark shadows rose out of the air started to surround the ignorant man. Watching impassively as the man finally realized his fate and started to scream and beg for mercy. Ignoring the man Kage/Yusei gracefully strolled over to the shaking red head, reminding her of a graceful predator.

Crouching down to her level bi-eyes observed her before asking, "Are you alright?"

"You killed him…" she mumbled.

"Yes.", he said simply.

"Why?"

"Because he was a threat to my home." Looking up he saw a portal making itself know by tearing its way through the space of the realm. Slipping his arms under her, she watched as he strolled over to the portal. "It seems your friends want you two back."

The two looked through the portal seeing Luna, Leo, Jack, and Crow searching frantically around the park that she and Yusei had been in when the duel started." Looking up at the possessor of her friend she quaveringly asked, "Will you give him back?"

"Yes." Looking down at her he smiled kindly, "Do not worry neither of you will remember my presence, you will only remember Yusei won."

"Wait!" Feeling a shiver run through her as she saw a ghostly figure leave her friend the red and white color leaving her friend's face. Blue eyes turned quickly to look at the kind red ones, "You need…", before Yusei could finish the portal engulfed the two 'Signers' causing their vision to go black.

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A/N: Well there we go first chapter is up and ready to go.

I really don't have anything else to put if you need me to clarify something just comment and tell me what you think.

6


	3. Chapter 2: Finding a Hero

** The Shadow Realm**

**A/N: Disclaimer: By the way my friends I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds**

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**Chapter Two:**

**Finding a Hero**

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Yusei groaned in pain, blue eyes blinking open seeing a pair of concerned purple ones staring back at him. "You okay man? You were out of it for a while." Jack asked. "I'm fine…my head just hurts." Sitting up Yusei clutched out his head a stinging pain radiating throughout his brain. Grunting his other hand came up to hold the other side as if it would alleviate the coursing pain.

A flicker of memory flashed through his brain; the theft, the kidnapping, the challenge, teleporting to the shadow realm, almost losing, but then the last thing that he remembered was a soft kind voice, it whispered to him of help. After that he drew a blank until the moment the duel was over and he somehow had won. Then being thrust out of the shadow realm, except right before he left he remembered begging the voice to stay but only saw the red of Aki's hair.

Jolting in shock he swiftly looked up at Jack sputtering out. "How's Aki? Is she ok?!"

Jack made placating gestures before saying, "Don't worry she woke up a little before you. She had the same head pain as you and says she could only remember getting kidnapped and then you winning. We were hoping you could fill in some of the blanks." Finished Jack looked at him curiously. Shaking his head Yusei muttered, "Wait for everyone to get here."

Nodding Jack went back upstairs to tell the others that Yusei was up and wanted to talk to all of them. A little later everyone filled in the twins, Luna and Leo, jumped on him cheering about how happy they were to see him and that he worried them. Patting their heads he chuckled lightly. "I promise to not try to do that as little as I can." The two twins nodded at him cheerfully before being pulled off by Aki who smothered him in a tight bear hug.

"Awwww, Yusei you were awesome! I'm sorry I don't remember the full duel but I bet you were as cool as you normally are."

Aki looked up at him expectantly. Carefully untangling himself from the girl he looked up seriously at the group. "I will tell you about as much as I know about what happened to see if we could fill in some of the gaps but I don't know if it'll help any." The rest of the people nodded before he continued. "It started when Aki wanted to see me for some reason at the park yesterday morning. Curious I went to see that she had packed a picnic for us saying I was under too much stress from being at Duel Academy and being worshipped because I'm the current Duel King and needed to relax."

The others in the group looked at the red head who blushed, Jack and Luna stared at her with knowing expressions; Leo and Crow grinned mischievously before starting to sing the kissing song. Yusei ignored all of this and continued to sort his thoughts.

"Anyway we started to eat when Aki said she needed to go to the bathroom. I waited for a few minutes but after about ten I decided to go check on her." Looking towards her Yusei waited for her to fill in her side of the story.

Taking up her cue Aki nodded, "Yes at that time when I went to the bathroom I was confronted with a man in a hood who grabbed me and tried to knock me out. When he couldn't he grabbed my belt causing me to freeze and snatched my deck, at this time Yusei arrived."

"Yes, I came upon the scene of Aki glaring at a man who tauntingly held her deck. He then grabbed her, seeming to summon some kind of shadow chains binding her, then challenged me to duel. I had to except to get Aki's deck back and to have her be returned unharmed. When the game started he inserted cards into Aki's deck and then started to use it, in the duel, we were transported into the shadow realm and the game began. At first I was winning, but then he started to use cards that are banned in battle, resulting in me starting to lose the match."

The crew's eyes grew wide at this. Luna and Leo looked annoyed while Crow and Jack glared like they wished to find the man and show him what they thought of his 'cheating'. "Soon after the Dark Signer started to rant about Yusei's demise and summoned "The Crimson Devil"." Aki stated worried.

"What!?" Jack yelled, "But I sealed him!"

"Yeah how would he get out? There's no way for him to escape." Luna and Leo said.

"Plus, they can't even use him because he's unstable. How would he be able to use him in the battle against Yusei?" Crow asked hand on his chin.

Yusei nodded in understanding, "Normally this would be true "The Crimson Devil" is to unstable because of its power to be used in battle, in this realm. But it seems because we were in "The Shadow Realm" that it was completely stable, and also that if I HAD lost that it would have devoured both mine and Aki's souls and be freed to leave The Shadow Realm and wreak havoc here."

The whole group was silent as the consequences of the duel set into their minds causing their hearts to beat in terror and relief that he had won. "After I understood that he was cheating I felt a calmness come over me. I can't quite understand what happened, but when I started to pull cards out of my deck they were cards I had never seen before…the cards!"

Spinning around he grabbed his duel disk that sat on the shelf next to his make shift bed. Pulling his cards out frantically he flipped through them pulling out cards that had never been seen before in all of duel monster history. Their effects great enough if used the cards would be banned on spot. So far he had only pulled out spell and trap cards until he got to the bottom of the deck where he saw a card with dark mist surrounding it. The moment he touched it the shadows snake up his arm.

Yelping Yusei dropped the card quickly watching as the shadows flowed and disintegrated back into the card. "Ohh, so beautiful…" Luna whispered. Leo held Luna's wrist lightly, looking at her cautiously, "But scary." "Yes, quite scary a dragon card that'll even reject Yusei." Jack murmured.

"It's not just a dragon card." Yusei stated.

"What do you mean it's not just a dragon?" Aki questioned.

"Because I have one more card that's never been in my deck before the only problem is that it's blank…except for the type and the name the rest of the card is blank: no effect, no picture, no attack and defense, no element, and no stars."

"What's the name then?" Crow asked curiously. Everyone shivered the card's name was "Shadow Realm". They thought it would be a field card but when they looked down at the type they saw it was a Magician-Warrior monster. "I've never heard of a Magician-Warrior type. I've seen Beast-Warriors but never Magician." Jack said looking curiously at the card.

Putting the "Shadow Realm" card down, he looked back down at the shadowy dragon card on the floor. It was a beautiful dragon it looked like a cross between all dragons. Its position had its back to them head turned so that it was glancing at them. Its facial expression was dismissive, eerily golden eyes staring up at you, like it didn't care that you were there and that it knew it could take you down if you so much as blinked wrong.

Even sitting down it didn't look quite like it was sitting, it looked like it was crouching though it was close enough to the ground to resemble sitting. Four graceful wings extruded from its back, white feathers fading into the shoulders and stopped halfway up the wings, the membranes shimmered like the night sky filled with purple mist and stars. Two tails curled next to its giant black body, more white feathers surrounded around the spades, ending in blood red tips. Its face looked like that of a king's, the ears looked more like a Chinese dragon's: white feathers adorned around its ears and blood red ram horns, a light band of golden bumps circled around its head like a crown. It had a five fingered clawed foot, red claws curved dangerously into the ground beneath it.

"I have a feeling these two cards have something to do with that blank spot in both mine and Aki's memories. But for now I'll hold on these…Shadow cards…and see if we can find out who's they are or where they came from." Yusei said. Pulling his gloves back on, he gingerly picked up the misty card sighing in relief when the shadows did not over take his arm like they had last time. Pulling out another deck box he slid the newly dubbed Shadow cards into the box and slid it onto the opposite side, of his belt.

"Hey Yusei, why did you say who's cards they are? They could be cards that were just made by "The Shadow Realm" itself and placed in your duel disk." Jack asked

Turning to Jack, Yusei nodded at Jack's theory. "But that brings up the problem doesn't Jack. The Shadow Realm has widely been thought off as a place where the monsters that are our cards are real, and yet for your theory to hold ground, that The Shadow Realm was let's say annoyed with the duel and placed cards in my deck to help me. Would it not have just set the real monsters to eat the three of us? Instead powerful monster cards I've never seen before were placed only in my deck. This makes a point all of us have never thought of before, if The Shadow Realm itself was helping, how could it understand the concept of cards and their effects, if it is nothing but a place? It would have to be able to think and understand to be able to transform the monsters that live there into a card form that is actually playable."

"What are you saying that something else was helping you?"

"That's exactly what I think. I think something lives there Jack and whatever or whoever it is that lives there was willing to give me the use of their cards to win the duel, and I also think it's them who caused my memory lose."

"What do ya mean?"

"As I was saying before I got distracted about the _other cards _when I started to pull other cards out of my deck I started to win again. This seemed to anger the Dark Signer and it seemed he didn't want to draw out the duel any longer and summoned "The Crimson Devil". When this happened I thought I had lost, it destroyed all my spells and traps on the field and killed my weakest monster just barely not destroying all my life points. Because it was a Shadow Duel with the few amount of life points I had left I could barely move I felt so detached but I knew I needed to continue on with my turn or I was going to be disqualified for not continued my turn. Then I felt something brush my consciousness it was burning but also freezing the two sensations were forcing me to stay conscious when a voice started to speak to me asking for permission. Permission for what I don't remember but I remember giving it to him.

"Him?"

"Hmmm?"

"You said him."

Blinking up at him, Yusei looked back down and tried to remember everything he could. "Yes it was a man I remember that because it felt like I was being held up but I couldn't see anything except long red and white hair curtaining around me and eerie blood red eyes. We talked and the one thing I remember the most was his surprise it was like his soul was touching mine and I could feel all his emotions including the surprise he felt when I asked him his name. He seemed so confused when I asked him for his name…"

"Do you remember his name!?" Luna yelled excitedly jumping up and down. Leo wasn't much better he was looking at Yusei with the eyes of a child wrapped up in a story.

Jolting Yusei looked around he had been so engrossed in Jack and his conversation he had forgotten that the rest of his friends where there. Shaking his head negatively Yusei said, "No but I remember he was very business-like attitude when asking for my permission but seemed amused by my response. Afterwards when I gave my permission I felt him do something before a tingly sensation ran through my whole body like that feeling you get when your leg is asleep and all the blood is rushing back into it. But the rush of feeling I got after it is something many could get addicted to. I felt like my inside where being filled with sneaking fog freezing every part it could find but then a rush of fire ran through my body, power unlike anything we've ever seen before even more then "The Crimson Dragon"."

The group stared at him in wonder and curiosity, 'What ever could be more powerful than "The Crimson Dragon?', they thought collectively.

"The power was too much though it overwhelmed me, but when I felt like I was losing myself in the dual sensations of freezing and burning a soothing wind seemed to wrap around me and calm the storm of power surrounding me. With this wind it was like I could touch the power around me and use and bend it to my will but knew I shouldn't try incase the power overwhelmed me once more. Instead I just wished feverently that I would win so that our world wouldn't be destroyed once more. The wind seemed to understand my wish and expanded into the power weaving it around me until it stopped and I felt like my soul was being torn apart; the wind still protected me though. As the heat and cold were leaving me I became aware of the outside world once more seeing the defeat of the Dark Signer, and then me walking towards Aki; picking her up. I only felt completely in control of myself once more when I was being pushed out the portal by invisible hands. I could feel the one who helped me and wanted him to come with us; during the time we had 'combined' I felt his loneliness and solitude. It wasn't the loneliness of someone who had been alone their whole life but of one who used to have companions that they lost one way or the other.

The rest of the group understood Yusei's want of bringing this unknown person with him. For one the man had been kind enough to protect two of their comrades even though he didn't know them, and two he was experiencing a loneliness they had all faced at one point or another and never wanted to experience again.

"Aki. You have anything to add on to Yusei?", Crow asked

"No…I remember even less than Yusei and only really remember the end and having the feeling that Yusei had won the match."

"The bond between Yusei and The Crimson Dragon is probably what protected him from losing all of his memories from whatever blanked both of your minds." Luna said

Yusei sighed before standing up and stretching, "Well, we aren't going to learn anymore answers this way, so we might as well leave it for now and we all need our rest the brake is over today and we'll be heading back to school at Dual Academy tomorrow."

A collective sigh went up through the group remembering all the annoyances of being famous and being forced to go to school where you could get attacked by your 'adoring fans'.

Going over to the window Yusei rested his head against it while everyone else was saying good bye and having a group discussion on planning on how best to get their suitcases on the boat to the Dual Academy Island without people seizing their property. 'Maybe this new occurrence will give me something to think about and study when I'm on the island. I just hope this isn't the start to something bad.' he thought. Looking up into the night sky he watched as the moon passed in and out of view being covered up by dark clouds.


End file.
